Meet the man shaking-up road freight sector

By Nina Hendy

Jordan Panos has spent the past two years developing a platform that connects those who need removalist services, with drivers who have the means to pick up and deliver.

“I was trying to locate a removalist to take a pallet to Darwin for me, and freight companies were charging crazy prices,” Panos says.

“I realised there was a huge market for allowing consumers to find a way to use the spare capacity of trucks and broaden that into the removalist market."

Long haul trucking is part of the Australian business landscape.Credit:Kate Geraghty

Called ecoloads, the technology connects certified transporters wanting to bid on freight jobs across the country with Australians wanting to move office or house, furniture, a pet, piano, car, boat or industrial machinery.

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The platform launched eight weeks ago and has 3500 transporters on the site ready and willing to backload freight when they’re travelling across the country.

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There are 48,787 registered businesses in the road freight transport sector, ranging from single truck operators to large multinational corporations, according to a recent Australian Industry Standards report.

Panos says that the potential for small businesses struggling with affordable freighting options to track down quotes quickly is huge.

“For example, a courier who travels from Port Macquarie to Sydney once a month and comes back with an empty truck can now get found by a small business and offer a backload,” the Sydney-based Panos explains.

He’s building a niche in a major industry sector. The road freight transport industry employs 192,600 Australians and is expected to grow by 2.3 per cent per annum from $40.5 billion in 2016 to $47.0 billion by 2022, according to a BankWest report released last year.

Panos took an interesting route to fund his startup. Rather than borrow money to fund the technology build, he built a business that would generate income to fund the technology build.

He launched design and development agency OutRACE in 2015, which now has 14 staff, including a handful of key staff located in Poland, where wages are lower.

The technology has enabled me to scale the business without too many staff... the challenge has been getting the transporters to sign up

Jordan Panos

Outrace turned over $700,000 last financial year and continues to operate. Panos ploughed a further $150,000 of his own money into the build to get the product to market.

“It sounds like a round-about way of going about it, but it was a very effective way of accessing the skills I needed to build the technology,” he says.

“While the agency was ticking over and work came from clients, we were tinkering away on ecoloads and finding the best way to build the technology. The cost of hiring developers is far cheaper, and the quality in developers is exceptional.

“The technology has enabled me to scale the business without too many staff, however the challenge has been getting the transporters to sign up, and it’s been a challenge wearing all these hats.”

Panos has incorporated an arbitration process for damages and holds funds in escrow until the job is complete.

He hopes the business will achieve between $250,000 and $400,000 in transactional value in the first 12 months, but admits this goal may be too ambitious. Ecoloads takes an 18.5 per cent cut from the value of every load.

However, ecoloads will come up against other players in the market, including Moving24, which was launched in the Netherlands and already operates in Australia, also connecting removalists with consumers looking for a quote.

UK firm Shiply operates in Australia, while US juggernaut UShip has been operating in the Australian market since 2009. UShip announced heavy investment in expansion in Australia on the back of a recent funding round.

UShip general manager of global business Shawn Bose says the first steps into the Australian marker has been learning from early adopters.

“Long distant trips are at the heart of the Australian transport industry, which means planning the logistical elements properly is essential for every transporter. The Australian terrain poses certain unique challenges of its own, but we know UShip can ease some of those logistical nightmares," he said.

Meanwhile, Uber Freight is building its US network. While a media spokesperson told Fairfax Media that the company had nothing to share about a launch into Australia at this time, she did confirm that Uber Freight offers a range of perks such as discounts on the purchase of new or used trucks and discounts on parts, fuel and tyres in the US market as it builds critical mass to the US freight sector.